


Invitation

by rockinellie



Category: Trolls (2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Movie, spoilers if you haven't seen the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 03:21:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8561653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockinellie/pseuds/rockinellie
Summary: Branch is horrified when Poppy finds out he kept all of her invitations. Turns into sweet fluff!





	

**Author's Note:**

> This has not been edited yet and as such might actually make very little sense. I tend to write whatever comes to mind, so sometimes it's kind of a mess? 
> 
> There is light making out but nothing beyond that. 
> 
> I am incapable of writing things that aren't sweet. This movie has made me break my one rule of never including song lyrics in a fanfiction. 
> 
> Song: "I Want To Hold Your Hand"- The Beatles

It had been a while since the Trolls had begun to move from their village into the tree in the middle of Bergentown. It was a slow move, honestly, what with how many there were of them and how many children there were. Now that they had time to go back and forth and pick things up and move them back it was easier and harder all at once. Twenty years prior they couldn’t take anything but their own bodies to flee and now they had things they wanted to bring. Not to mention that they were busy building new living pods and finding out where everyone should live. The families had begun by picking out areas, and then helping build up that area. Sections that finished first helped sections that were still being worked on and then they all went to help the next section and so on and so forth until everyone was completed. It was then that people started going back to the village to bring what they could home with them. Branch was the only Troll in Troll Tree who, instead of building a hanging pod, moved into the roots of the tree and dug out his home so it was similar to his house in the old village. He had the luxury of choosing anywhere at the base of the tree he wanted, and as such, his home was close to the entrance to the “direct” staircase to Poppy’s pod. When Poppy had asked if he had done it on purpose he had scoffed and told her that if she had to know, the roots here were perfect, and it was a very big coincidence. Not that she bought it. 

To no one’s surprise, Poppy and Branch had been spending a considerable time around one another since the move. If she wasn’t down with him helping smooth the walls of his dugout he was in her pod, helping her move furniture until she was happy. They weren’t exactly secretive about it and it wasn’t as if Poppy was hiding anything. Branch, as always, was a little more secretive. But even still he wasn’t very good at being so with her even if he tried. Whenever one of them had to go back to the village for something the other went, too. It was late in the evening, long shadows casting across the ground of Bergentown and the Trolls pods were just beginning to light up the sky around their tree. Branch and Poppy had just returned from their trip to the old village both with full backpacks and tired feet. They had gone to Branch’s house first because he had a bathtub and Poppy liked to use it when she had the opportunity to. Since she had lugged his very heavy books and mementos this time, he was glad to let her use it in return. As she soaked he unpacked his backpack and started to work on hers. 

In his new home he had built better shelving, deeper and more like bookcases, to hold his diaries and his invitations he had kept. While he was pretty open with Poppy about having “diaries”, having kept all of her invitations was a very big secret to him. It was kind of weird and sad in his opinion and he really didn’t want her knowing about it. Beyond that, it showed that without a doubt he had a crush on her for ages before their little adventure. Which was both good and bad, he figured. Good because he had admitted to loving her and if he had a crush on her for a while that made that more…normal. Bad because he felt kind of like a loser for admiring a girl for so long and treating her like he really didn’t like her. So he wasn’t keen on letting her know about any of it and had hidden the invitations in his books that they had carried back. He was just starting to pull her backpack open and pull the books out when she appeared in the doorway from his bedroom, her hair wet. 

“I’m done,” She said, smiling at him while running one of his towels through her hair. Another one of his towels was wrapped around her torso, tied so it wouldn’t slip off of her. Branch looked up from his books and stopped immediately, feeling the blush rise to his cheeks. 

“You’re going to kill me.”

“What?” 

Branch stood up, knocking some of the books half-open with his sudden and jerky movement. “Nothing, I’ll go now. Uh, the books just need to go on the shelves. Great.” And he stiffly brushed past her and into his room, disappearing around the corner into the bath room.

Poppy giggled softly, rolling her eyes. What a dork. She hung the towel for her hair up on a little hook outside his bedroom opening and padded across the smooth dirt floor to the books he had knocked around. A few were flipped sideways so that their pages were open, and she knelt down to lift them up gently. To her surprise, pink folded paper slipped out of the pages and fell to the ground. Immediately curious she sat on her knees. After a moment of contemplation she opened the folded paper. Her eyes widened in quiet surprise as she realized that this beautifully made pop-up invitation to a slumber party was made by herself for Branch. Slowly she set it aside and opened each and every book, spilling invitation after invitation to the floor. Each one was made by her, each one had his name on it, and each one had been painstakingly put back together after her had crushed it in front of her. She knew this was so, because she remembered spending hours making these for him over the years and she remembered each and every time he had thrown her hard work to the ground and crushed it. Her fingers flitted over the areas where he clearly pieced the cards back together, and she could see with each one how his own skills grew. In the newest card she couldn’t even really tell where he had deftly fixed the paper pop-up. Then again, it seemed with each one he also got more careful to stomp on it how he knew he could fix it. 

This was how, when he came back in a pair of clean pajamas with towel-dried hair, he found her sitting on the floor surrounded by his dirty little secret. At first he didn’t notice them and instead was entirely focused on her. Smiling, he was going to ask her why she hadn’t gotten dressed yet, but then he looked at where her attention was held. His stomach dropped and his face fell. Somewhere within him panic broke out but his body was so numb from the surprise that he didn’t react at all. A strangled noise emitted from his throat and Poppy’s eyes snapped up from the cards to him. Amazingly, she blushed and started shutting them quickly, shoving them into the books as if that would change the fact that she /found/ them. How, he didn’t know.

“Oh! Branch!” Poppy laughed nervously before continuing on, “I-uh-didn’t see you there!” After the last card was shoved back into a book she hopped to her feet, nudging them away from her with her toes. “How was your bath?”

Branch was outside his body, drifting. At first he said nothing and only stared at her. Then, slowly, “It…went…well.”

“Great! Great, that’s good to hear!” 

He watched her quickly head for the front door. The jerky movements that tried to get her there were slow and almost painful to watch and clearly she was nervous (or freaked out? He couldn’t tell). She reached the door before something seemed to occur to her and she spun around to face him, though her eyes were trained at the floor. Also noticing what her sudden issue was he laughed a bit.

“Clothing would be good.”

“Yes, thanks Branch. Clothes, yep. Can I just-I left them in-“ Poppy was trying to get around him, to his bedroom, and he stepped to the side to let her in, though he continued to watch her and stand in his doorway. She snatched her dress from the top of his dresser and then turned to him. “Do you mind?”

“Poppy.” 

“I just need you to turn around, Branch, you don’t have to leave.”

“Fine,” Branch turned, leaning against the doorframe and looking out into his living room while she changed behind him. “But how did you come across them?”

“Them what?” It sounded as if she was having a hard time with her dress, from all her fumbling and small curses under her breath.

“My invitations.”

“Ohh-those!” Poppy’s voice pitched a bit and for a moment he was certain she was going to spin him a tale of some kind of way for him to not blame her. After a moment she whispered, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what it was but I did know that I shouldn’t have opened it. I did anyway. I didn’t think it was…”

Branch was stiff in the doorway, frowning to himself. Silence stretched between them and finally he started when he felt her hand tentatively touch his shoulder. When he didn’t move away she took it as an invitation and he felt her arms reach around his middle. Her body pressed against his back and her head rested against the nape of his neck. Tensing for only a moment he relaxed when he felt the cloth of her dress hit the back of his legs. Letting out a small sigh he put his hands over hers and squeezed gently. 

“I should be the one apologizing. I should have told you I kept them all. It shouldn’t have been a secret.”

He felt her take a breath and he felt her hold it for a moment before she asked in a rush, “Why did you keep them?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” He looked over his shoulder at her, smirking a bit. Honestly, sometimes she confused him. Clearly he had kept them because he loved her. Somehow she’d missed that. When his eyes locked with hers it was apparent she /had/ missed that, and he turned to take her hands in his. Pulling one up to his mouth, he kissed it gently, “I love you, Poppy.”

Poppy smiled, “But for how long?”

“Ages.”

The hand he had brought to his face pulled from him to stroke his cheek and smiling he leaned into it, closing his eyes. Gently she pulled her hand away and stroked his hair, running the blue strands through her pink fingers. Branch’s stiff posture relaxed immediately and he let out his breath in a low groan. He loved having his hair played with, more than anyone Poppy had even heard of, and she pulled her hand from his so both of her hands could play with the strands of his hair. When he started to melt to the ground she giggled and pulled him up.

“Want to move to the couch?” Poppy asked him. With a dumb nod from him, she led him out to his living room and pulled him onto the couch with her. Easily he went and when she gently tugged him down he laid his head in her lap. Her hands went back to work as soon as he was relaxed and his eyes drifted closed immediately. While she played, she sang quietly to him. One of his hands came up to rest on her knee. Poppy smiled at the small amount of contact. It seemed that lately, if they were alone for even a moment, he would reach out to her physically. Sometimes even in public he would reach for her- although that was rarer. Oftentimes he would take her hand in his if it was crowded and no one could see although she had noticed that he tried to be as close to her as possible when it came time for hugging. It was always kind of sweet how unsure he was about the nature of their relationship. While it was true that they spent time together and he had told her he loved her neither of them had taken the time to ask exactly what their relationship was. Neither was seeing another Troll and even though Poppy had been asked a few times to attend parties with certain people she had always politely declined. Branch barely saw anyone outside of Poppy during the past few weeks as he helped people build their pods during the day and spent his evenings digging out his new home. Maybe he was scared to ask her. She knew she was scared to ask him. 

Seeing him lying in her lap, enjoying her affection, and clearly wanting to express his own, Poppy felt a surge of confidence. “Branch.” One of his eyes drifted open to glance up at her and she faltered. Maybe it would be better to leave things as they were? What if she asked him and he had meant platonic love? Like the kind one felt for a really good friend? Her ears were filled with the rushing of blood and she blushed when he opened both eyes to look at her. Clearly he had heard her heartbeat pick up and the mere thought of his sensitive ears picking up on that made her heart beat faster. Both of her hands stilled though they were nestled in his hair still. Before he could ask, she rushed forward.

“Will you be my boyfriend?”

Silence. It droned on for what felt like years. Poppy felt the heat on her cheeks darken and she could barely breathe she was straining so badly for a response. Surely he had to answer her someday? As for Branch, he looked surprised. His jaw hung open and his eyes were wide as he looked up at her. The hand on her knee tightened its grip and his other hand grabbed at the edge of his pajama shirt.

“What?” It was barely audible. Poppy had only caught it because she was staring at him.

“Will you be my boyfriend?” She heard herself repeating, the tone stilted and halting. “Like, uh, like romantically? Like, um…I don’t know another way to express this…” She glanced around for a hint. There was a pause and he felt her take a deep breath before she sang out quietly:

“And please, say to me  
You'll let me hold your hand  
You let me hold your hand  
I wanna hold your hand  
And when I touch you I feel happy  
Inside  
It's such a feeling that my love  
I can't hide.”

Branch smiled a bit although it was clear to her he was a bit confused. How could she make it more clear to him, she wondered. She cast about for songs she could sing to him but he sat up, pulling his hair free from her hands to turn to look at her. “I don’t want to sound rude.” 

“Uh, okay?” Poppy choked out, looking at her hands instead of at his face now.

“And forgive me for assuming…But weren’t we kind of already doing that?” Branch asked curiously. “Maybe I was wrong. I guess I’m not really good at reading situations and all of that. But I could have sworn that we said we loved each other? Doesn’t that usually mean you’re seeing that person romantically?”

Poppy blushed brightly immediately. So if he knew that they were dating it seemed she was the only one who didn’t really know what the nature of their relationship was! It also didn’t help her embarrassment that he was looking so smug and amused-and so close to her personal bubble too! What a jerk! “Well if you had /told/ me this wouldn’t have happened!”

“Told you!” Branch laughed, short and gasping and unnatural sounding still from his seldom use of it. “Poppy I did! Like, two minutes ago! When you asked me how long, and I said ages, and then you played with my hair? It’s not really polite to grab a Trolls hair if you’re not, you know- involved.”

“Well!” Poppy turned her face from him, sticking her nose in the air. “It still might’ve been polite to tell me we were dating!”

After a moment Branch snorted, “Well, if you’re seeing someone else, he’d better back off. I saved you from being eaten by spiders I think that’s something close to betrothal in some communities.”

It was Poppy’s turn to laugh. Her laugh washed over him and they both seemed to relax into normality again. “Oh, Branch, you’re funny. Come here.” With both hands she pulled him into a tight embrace, rubbing her cheek against his. Branches arms rested lightly around her body and while he didn’t nuzzle her back he did accept it as it was and didn’t try to fight her. Which was enough, really. “I know this is all so new for you. I just wasn’t sure! Because for me this is new, too. Nobody’s quite like you.” He snorted and she pressed on, “It’s a good thing. You’re special, Branch. But because you don’t behave like the other boys I’ve dated I wasn’t really sure what…all the hand holding and coming to my pod and helping me and stuff meant. I thought maybe you meant--well, friendship love”

“Is that a thing?”

“Yes!” Poppy laughed, pulling back from their hug to kiss his cheek. Both of them froze. That was the first time they had actually kissed each other. While they had been spending time alone, helping each other along, and hugging, this was the first time kissing had occurred. Ever. The weight of it hit them both and stunned them into mutual silence before Branch tried to stand up. It seemed to Poppy that he did that a lot. Whenever he got nervous or was afraid of something that might be happening between them he would leave the area. In fact, he’d walked out of one of their first parties together because of something similar. This seemed a bit heavier, however. Before Poppy really knew what she was doing, she reached out and grabbed his shirt, pulling him back to the couch with a harsh yank.

“Wha-“

And before he could ask her what she was doing, her mouth crashed against his. At once his senses were full with her. She tasted exactly as he imagined: honey and sunshine. Every second pulled against her he was losing himself in her. The body wash she had no doubt stored at his place radiated from her skin and took over his sense of smell- lavender and jasmine blocked out every other scent he was sure to have ever smelled until all he remembered was the smell of her. His skin was prickling from the contact as her kiss pressed into him. Eyes, which had screwed shut shortly after the kiss had been instigated, relaxed slowly. Hesitantly he ran his hands around her sides and to her back, pulling her back against him. It was clear to Poppy, who had kissed before, that Branch had not. It was all those years of self-induced exile, for sure, because she couldn’t imagine who wouldn’t want to be with her Branch. When his hand rested in the small of her back and the other at the nape of her neck, her grip on his shirt relaxed. Her own hands found their way around his neck and she slipped onto his lap, her legs wrapping around his waist to hold her in place as they kissed. 

Branch was unsure. How long did kissing last? Should he come up for air? Breath through his nose? He knew slobbering on a girl was unattractive, but his mouth was closed so how would that even happen? Poppy answered that for him in a moment, as her tongue gently probed his mouth and he sat back, startled. His eyes snapped open and he was blushing. Poppy only laughed and pulled him back in for more. 

“You’ll get used to it, promise.”

Certain that she was lying, he tried to relax as she taught his clumsy mouth to obey what he knew was basic affection for a dating couple. They were, after all, coming up on a month. And no doubt in his mind she had done this before with other Trolls. Creek, probably. To help distract himself from the fool he was being, the hand at the nape of her neck gently stroked the base of her hair. Pleased when she shivered against him, he ventured to stroke her hair. With a sigh she pulled away from him for a moment, her hand stealing to her own hair. At first Branch was certain he had messed up but was relieved when she only pulled her crown from her hair and tossed it to the side. She smiled sweetly before pulling him into her again. Branch ran his fingers through the length of her hair, listening to her sigh gently against him. No wonder she was fine with playing with his hair. The reactions from her were more than enough payback for him. It only lasted for a few minutes before she pulled back, breathing heavily. Not that his breathing was any more even but it did seem to him that she was a bit more affected than he was. 

“You okay?”

Poppy pressed her forehead to his and nodded, “Yes.” 

“You know,” Branch said quietly, feeling the heat rise to his cheeks again, “If you want to stay I made sure my bed was wide enough for two when I built it.” 

The offer hung in the air between them for less than a minute. Poppy giggled and kissed him again surprising him for what felt like the millionth time today alone. “Did you make it big enough for two, Branch?”

“Uh-that’s not why I made it that big!”

“Uh-huh.” 

Branch rolled his eyes, playfully shoving her off his lap and back onto the couch. Standing up, he brushed his pajama pants off. Playfully he lifted his nose in the air. “Well if you don’t want to stay you can go on home then! I think I’ve had enough of you nosing through my things, anyways. What kind of Queen pokes through her subjects very personal books?”

“Ooh,” Poppy laughed from her spot on the couch, “You’ve got me, Branch. But being a nosy Queen, I guess it would be good to learn how my subjects sleep. And since I /am/ your Queen you’re going to have to let me stay the night if I ask you too.”

“You’re forcing me?” Branch’s eyebrows shot up.

“Yep! You heard the Queen!” Poppy hopped off the couch and headed for his bedroom, “I get to pick my side of the bed!”

“Wait!” Branch raced after her, “The right side is mine!”

As he helped her pick out what pajama set she was going to borrow (And “improve” as she put it) he thought maybe that this could be worse. Even if he did lose his pajamas to glitter and rainbows or whatever she was planning on doing to them he was certain she was a cuddler. Not that he was looking forward to that, of course, but he wasn’t exactly revolted by the idea. If cuddling was like her hugs, anyway. For the first time in a long time his home felt happy and warm instead of isolating and sheltered and he was glad for it. They cuddled up in bed together and he fell asleep with her filling his senses just as he always wished she would.


End file.
